Week 1 of the Reebok CrossFit open is in the books. Congratulations to all who participated. Saturday was a lot of fun and I was impressed with the amount of fire that everyone brought to their workout and the amount of energy in the gym! Some even redid it (the next day) because they thought they could get a better score. I (Jeff) had a couple observations about the whole week:

1. The majority of participants (coaches included) were not satisfied with their score and thought they could do better. Either looking to beat someone else specifically, or improve their ranking. Motivation, regardless of where it comes from, can be great fuel for the fire. Sometimes these experiences will humble you.

2. Out of the people that redid the WOD, only about 50% improved, those who did, usually not by much.

3. There are nearly double the amount participants in the open this year in our region, which means you need to be in the top 2.3% of men and the top 3.9% of women to make it to Regionals (very slim margins...). Last year a guy needed to average average a ranking of 85 to make it to Regionals. It was 65ish for women. This year I am predicting it will be about 85 - 90 for women (based on pool size) and a bit higher for men.

4. There are gyms that have multiple teams in the open this year, crowding the pool and making it even more difficult to send a team to Regionals, (top 30 go and CrossFit NOLA is currently 31 out of 152 teams in TX, LA and MS). I am confident that our well rounded programming will shine and we will improve each week.

5. There were gutsy performances by some of the men and women who I thought might be on the fence about competing. They buckled down and hit it hard and the effort was outstanding, top finishing (non coaches or interns) were Stephen R - 116 and Karla V - 90, congrats.

Try not to get hung up on your numbers. I urge everyone that participates to keep in mind that giving 110% week is the best possible outcome. You will probably even learn some things about yourself. It is time to see how hard you can push because it looks like CrossFit NOLA has some work to do if we want to send a group to San Antonio at the end of April. Last year 2011 team members were Brad, Demian, Scott M, Liz, Andrea, Rae.

For those that did not knuckle up and join the Open (what were you thinking, by the way), you can still sign up and participate, but are no longer eligible to go to Regionals or contribute to the score of Team CrossFit NOLA. I have come view every year of the CrossFit Games as a once in a lifetime opportunity. Nobody knows what will happen next year as this sport becomes more and more advanced. This year we get to play a game with 55,000+ other people in the world. You should be thankful you rolled the dice.

WOD 12.2 released on Wednesday at 7 pm

Tuesday

Run club 630PM: Jefferson Playground. Bring a watch and sign up on MindBody!